"Hoarding: Buried Alive" filming in Hanover

TLC's "Hoarding: Buried Alive" is in town shooting a local story of clutter on Brewster Street.

A worker with Junk King disposal company from Cranberry Township, Pa., cleans out a home on Brewster Street in Hanover on Tuesday. (THE EVENING SUN -- SHANE DUNLAP)

Workers with Junk King works in the front lawn of a home on Brewster Street in Hanover on Tuesday. (THE EVENING SUN -- SHANE DUNLAP)

Erin Eyster would spend her quiet backyard evenings breathing in the stench of three-year-old pool water wafting over from next door.

The whine of mosquitoes over the stagnant water filled the air while Eyster watched the birds and rodents come and go from a hole in the side of the neighbor's house.

A Brewster Street resident for 13 years, Eyster said the house has been "an eyesore" for as long as she can remember. The house, only feet away from the Eyster family's Hanover home, has been condemned by Penn Township officials.

"I would hope they would get the junk out and (the house) would be kept up," Eyster said. "We tried to sell our house, but no one wants to live beside it."

Thankfully, The Learning Channel has come to the rescue. The channel agreed to shoot at the Brewster Street home for an episode of "Hoarding: Buried Alive," which is expected to air in early 2014. As a part of the shooting, TLC will get rid of the trash and vermin.

TLC has been filming on site since May 17 and started cleaning out the house Tuesday. Workers in yellow rubber boots and heavy masks took bags upon bags of trash out of the house into a dump truck parked in the street.

Jeff Garvick, manager of Penn Township, said the house has been unoccupied for years. The electric company shut off power because of unpaid bills. The food stored in the refrigerator sat for months, causing "nauseating odors" and attracting rodents, he said.

The township told Susan Potter, the owner of the property, that the rooms full of trash and debris must be cleared, and vermin must be exterminated.

But Potter told the township she could not afford the cost, and would contact TLC's show "Hoarding: Buried Alive." The show provides counseling as well as trash and vermin removal services for hoarders and airs every Wednesday at 9 p.m.

Representatives from TLC declined comment and said Potter would not be allowed to comment under her agreement with the show. After TLC is done, the township will assess the structural integrity of the building. Potter will have to pay for any more work needed, or the house will be demolished. It will not be fit for residence until the township approves.

"Our concern at this point is to eliminate the immediate dangers," Garvick said. "I think there's a long way to go where it is livable again."